Gopinath Munde death: Body reaches Mumbai; funeral tomorrow in native village Latur

Mumbai: The body of BJP leader and Union Rural Development Minister Gopinath Munde, who died in a road accident in Delhi, reached Mumbai this evening.

The special plane carrying the body, accompanied by Munde's relatives and party members, landed at the domestic airport. The body was taken to 'Poorna' building in Worli, Munde's residence.

Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, MNS chief Raj Thackeray, BJP MP Hema Malini and NCP leaders Chhagan Bhujbal and Praful Patel visited Munde's residence to pay respects.

The body will be later kept at the state BJP office in south Mumbai to enable people pay respects to the departed leader.

It would be flown to Latur in central Maharashtra tomorrow morning. From Latur, the body will be taken to Parali in Beed district (Munde's Lok Sabha constituency), around 70 km from Latur.

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Munde family hails from Nathra village near Parali. The funeral is expected to take place at around 4.30 pm in the premises of a sugar factory founded by Munde near Parali tomorrow, party sources said.

Munde, who made his entry into the Union Cabinet for the first time last week, was on his way to the airport when his car was hit by another vehicle at Prithviraj Road-Tughlak Road roundabout in the heart of the national capital.

A senior police official said the offending vehicle was an Indica car, driven by Singh, which jumped the traffic signal at Aurobindo Chowk and collided with the Maruti Suzuki SX 4 in which Munde was travelling towards Safdarjung Road from Prithviraj Road.

The Indica was coming towards Tughlaq Road, a little over a km from the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's official residence, and hit Munde's car towards the passenger side where the minister was sitting, the police official said, adding Munde fell on the seat immediately after the car was hit.

Gurvinder Singh was detained from the spot and later arrested.

Later, a Delhi court on Tuesday granted bail to Gurvinder Singh. Singh was produced before Metropolitan Magistrate Puneet Pahwa and the Delhi Police told the court that the Intelligence Bureau and the Special Cell were investigating whether there was any conspiracy angle behind the accident.

The police told the court that Test Identification Parade of the accused was required to be conducted and Singh be remanded to 14-day judicial custody.

The magistrate, however, said the offences brought against the arrested person were bailable and if required, the police can take his custody later on.

"Accused produced after fresh arrest. Request for 14 days judicial custody sought. The offences being bailable, accused is admitted to bail on a personal bond and a surety bond of Rs 30,000 each," the court said.

During the brief hearing, the police told the court that further investigation was going on to find out whether there was any conspiracy behind the incident.

"The Special Cell (of Delhi Police) and Intelligence Bureau are investigating all the aspects and they are not leaving any stone unturned to investigate whether there was any conspiracy angle," the police said.

Advocate Vikas Padora, who appeared for Singh, opposed the police plea seeking remand of the accused to judicial custody saying the offences alleged against him were bailable.

According to the police, Singh was arrested for the offences under sections 279 (rash and negligent driving) and 304A (causing death by negligence) of the IPC. The offences entails a maximum punishment of two years jail.

The 32-year-old driver of the cab which Munde's car was allegedly speeding and had jumped the red light, according to police.

"An FIR has been registered against Gurvinder Singh under section 279 (rash and negligent driving) and 304(A)(causing death by negligence) at Tughlak Road Police Station and he was arrested after prima facie he was found at fault of jumping the red light and over speeding," said Additional Commissioner of Police (New Delhi) SBS Tyagi.

Meanwhile, the Indica car, being driven by Singh, came from Aurobindo Marg at a high speed and hit Munde's car from the left side where the Union Minister was sitting, police said.

"Indica's bonnet and bumper were totally damaged due to the impact. The car skid for 31 feet from the point of impact, marks of which are there on the road. This prima facie suggests that the car was travelling at high speed," said Tyagi.

Munde, who was accompanied by Assistant Personal Secretary Surendra Nayar and driver Virendra Kumar in the car, did not stop on the spot and headed straight to the hospital.

Interestingly, it was Singh who had made a PCR call at 6:44 am to the police after the accident took place claiming that a car with a red beacon hit his vehicle and fled.

He was brought to the Tughlak road police station and as it emerged that it was he who had broken the red light and hit the SX4 car, which led to Munde's death, he was arrested. He later confessed to interrogators that he "committed a mistake", according to police.

"He has told us that the Indica car belonged to him. He works for a company, which was contracted by a five star hotel at Janpath to provide transportation facility to its guest.

"He was going to report for duty when the accident took place. It seems that he was getting late and was speeding to reach on time when he jumped the red light and the accident took place," said Tyagi.

Gurvinder's car skidded for 31 feet before coming to a halt which means it was travelling at a high speed when the accident took place while there are no skid marks of the SX4, he said.

Also, Munde's car was to Singh's right and in his line of vision clearly suggesting that he was at fault, claimed a senior official associated with the investigation. Police's FSL team will reconstruct the incident to find out the exact circumstances.

A special software of the Delhi Traffic Police will also be used to determine these things, include speed of the vehicles. The crime team of the Delhi Police was also called on the spot to gather crucial evidence.